What gets measured gets done: setting targets for the number of women on boards

Helen Wells, Acting Director of Opportunity Now the gender campaign within Business in the Community welcomes the recommendations of Lord Davies:

“The recommendations within the Lord Davies Review should be welcomed for their pragmaticism. Increasing the diversity of UK boardrooms is something which delivers business success and commercial advantage. I believe that better balanced boards are better boards, full stop. Study after study proves that having a diverse mix of experiences and perspectives leads to better strategic decision making, increased innovation and better corporate governance. Diversity helps avoids the pitfalls of group-think and the excessive risk  associated with “one dimensional thinking”. Evidence suggests that increasing the number of women on boards can contribute to higher return on equity and total return to shareholders. The business case is compelling, but there are still not enough women around UK board tables.  Cranfield research highlighted that women make up only 12.5% of FTSE 100 boards, only 5.5% of executive directorships and that 21 of the top 100 companies have no women on their board at all.

The recommendations put emphasis on reporting the number of women on the board, women in the pipeline and women within the organisation as a whole. They also suggest that businesses should have measureable objectives and a plan of how to achieve their aspirational targets. Let’s be clear about this – increasing the number of women on FTSE 100 boards to 25% by 2015 means that of 1080 board positions an extra 135 need to go to women or put another way we need to recruit an extra 27 women each year.

This “target and plan” mechanism allows organisations to approach increasing the number of women on their boards in a way which is meaningful to their own business and provides a practical vehicle for change. These recommendations should not be confused with any type of quota, they are about companies setting their own targets and their own action plans to achieve them. We all know that what gets measured, gets done and setting a target and an action plan for increasing the number of women within UK boardrooms should be no different. Opportunity Now has championed the business case for increasing the number of women in leadership roles for the last 20 years and we are delighted that our tenacity has helped to ensure that this is becoming  a mainstream business issue.”

The full recommendations from Lord Davies can be found here: http://www.bis.gov.uk/news/topstories/2011/Feb/women-on-boards

It was a few years back when the term “the Pink Pound” was penned, about the same time when Central Manchester was becoming the hip place to live, with the help of urban renewal and the LGBT community moving into the city. 

What was obvious is that this new community where generally made up of executives with plenty of disposable income, hence the name.

What is interesting is the launch of www.jobs.pinknews.co.uk part of pinknews, which has taken the governments initiative of Diversity in the work place as an opportunity for employers to attract these highly educated individuals. Apparently “The LGBT community has a higher density of graduates with at least one degree” and therefore are attractive to companies and they can also send a positive message to help them reach these new targets for Diversity.

For me, I wonder if having the ability to advertise specifically within a minority group, in some way precludes the rest of us.

Whatever side of the fence you are on it has to be a positive move and I am sure we will see more job boards, aimed at other community groups in the future.

Carrying on with the theme of Diversity in Recruitment, with more to follow. I found out today that Prestige Recruitment have reached the Gold Award for Diversity in Recruitment from the REC.

Obviously congratulations to Julie Hardy and her team at Prestige, but also for bringing to my attention more on this important topic. You can find out more by visiting the government website The Equal Opportunities Commission and the REC

On top of this I will be speaking to  Joel the MD of Cultiv8 Recruitment this week, a committed recruiter to Diversity to get his point of view also.

Oh on one last point, after visiting Prestige Recruitments website I couldn’t see any reference to their award or their commitment to Diversity, so Julie if you read this please shout about such a positive accolade.